Latin America in the Intelligent Age: A New Path for Growth

The report argues that AI presents a critical opportunity for Latin America to pivot from workforce-driven growth to productivity-driven growth, potentially adding $1.1 trillion to $1.7 trillion in annual economic value. While adoption is increasing, the report finds that value capture remains low, with only 6% of surveyed organizations reporting significant economic value. Key barriers include a severe talent gap, fragmented regulation, and a persistent urban-rural connectivity divide. The document recommends a phased roadmap focusing on sector-specific strategies (agriculture, mining, tourism), sustainable infrastructure investment, and regional collaboration to avoid economic stagnation.

• AI adoption could increase annual productivity in Latin America by 1.9% to 2.3% and generate between $1.1 trillion and $1.7 trillion in additional annual economic value, with analytical AI contributing $0.6 trillion to $1 trillion and generative AI contributing $0.5 to $0.7 trillion.
• Despite increasing adoption, actual economic value capture is very low; only 23% of Latin American organizations generate any economic value from AI, and only 6% report significant value creation.
• The region's AI competitiveness is hindered by a significant talent gap, which is the largest disparity between Latin American organizations and global leaders. This is exacerbated by emigration and competition from multinational technology delivery centres.
• Infrastructure challenges include a persistent urban-rural connectivity divide, with a fixed internet gap of over 30 percentage points between rural (42%) and urban (74%) households.
• AI investment in Latin America is disproportionately low relative to its economic size, accounting for only 1.6% of global AI investment despite representing nearly 6.3% of global GDP.
• Regulatory environments are fragmented and unclear, with 58% of surveyed leaders describing them as such. Data privacy and protection are cited as the primary regulatory bottlenecks.
• Latin America can achieve a competitive advantage by applying AI to sectors where it already has a global edge, specifically agriculture, mining, energy, and tourism, where GDP shares are often double the global average.
• Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are lagging significantly in AI value capture, with 59% reporting no measurable value, which threatens to widen the existing productivity gap between SMEs and large firms.

APA

World Economic Forum (2026). Latin America in the Intelligent Age: A New Path for Growth. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Latin_America_Intelligent_Age.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Latin America in the Intelligent Age: A New Path for Growth. 2026. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Latin_America_Intelligent_Age.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Latin America in the Intelligent Age: A New Path for Growth |date=January 2026 |url=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Latin_America_Intelligent_Age.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2026latin, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Latin America in the Intelligent Age: A New Path for Growth}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2026}, month = jan, url = {https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Latin_America_Intelligent_Age.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }